Sold out, at the crossroads

Earlier I mentioned what it is like to sit on the tailgate of my pickup and watch the dog each morning. M said it best with "the world always looks better when seated on the tailgate of a pickup truck"...

Yesterday morning (Friday), I had just dropped the Boy off at the Middle School and headed out with Terra for the countryside. I love living in a city environment (over 2,000 persons/sq.mi., and my mailbox is on my house!) while being less than a mile from pure ruralness (8 persons/sq.mi., and I don't see many mailboxes). One of our favorite spots is a place I like to call "The Crossroads" because it is where 270th Street (love that E-911) and Hawk intersect, in pure dirt glory. It is 1/2 mile from any gravel, which proved to be problematic.

I had just been there the day before, with no incident. But we had about 24 hours of drizzling rain, on and off. Everywhere seemed dry enough, and I did not notice a problem until I was about 200 yards into the dirt road. (I was singing along to a song from Banda el Recodo, "no me rajo, no me rajo, no me rajo." Then, I "rajo-ed." (Spanish: rajar means "to crack.")

I didn't hit anything, and I stayed on the road. But, I just got bogged down. It was about 6-10" of greasy, slippery mud on a hard pan that seemed even slipperier. I didn't spend too much time trying to get out of there, because it was at the base of a hill in all directions. I did manage to do a slow 180, and "park" it just off the side of the road. There were other tracks going through the area, and I was jealous of 4WD vehicles. I am convinced that I live in an area that justifies four-wheel drive, and not just for snow (which can stick around all winter in NW Missouri -- or not).

I set out with the dog, walking back to town. I was wearing loafers, unfortunately, but the fields adjacent to the road weren't really that muddy. It took about an hour and a half to walk home. The dog absolutely loved it, thinking it was an adventure or something. I was pretty drenched, and muddy, but I actually had a good time. I was pretty sure that I would be missing my 10:00 class. I did get back to the house at 9:07am, and called the office. My student worker was tickled with my story, and I told her to put a note up about the class. I was also filling in for the Colonel today, and I was hoping I could get in by 11:00, but I had to get that truck! Believe it or not, it only took $75 to get it yanked out of there. The tow truck was even slipping around getting to the truck.

I made it home at 9:50, but since the class was already canceled I balanced my checkbook rather than showing up only a few minutes late. I did make the other lecture, and I am not sure if I ever filled in for anyone like that before. I felt like a substitute teacher or something.

Did I tell anyone about my adventure? I told EVERYONE about it. It was actually one of the funnier things that has happened to me in a while, and I enjoyed trecking across farmland trying to get back to civilization so that I could lecture on Political Geography. The whole time I was walking in the muck and mist, I kept thinking about how lucky I am and how awesome this world is.

--gh